#:complete

[vandamaksimova]

“It's 4 in the morning, is everything ok?”

Everything is not okay - everything is in fact quite the opposite of okay - but Vanda hasn't actually thought this through far enough to have found any words to say about it. She's not thinking very clearly at all, and she's regretted calling since hearing the phone pick up.

"No," she says, "no, no, lost them Jean -  I want  - I miss - ruined everything --"

She doesn't know if she's even speaking coherent English; her thoughts are everywhere and her tongue stumbles over every word she chokes out as she tries not to break down in tears.

[demiboydemiurge]

"Hear my heartbeat? Just focus on that."

Billy is still shaking, but he nods and rests his head against his mother's chest. "Okay," he manages, and swallows hard.

The sound of her heart forms a steady, soothing rhythm, and it helps ground him, helps his own heartbeat slow and his breathing even out.